Should This Girl Have Been Able to Walk the Stage?

United States
June 12, 2008 8:42pm CST
Here in Texas you are required to pass the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) test to graduate. You are given numerous chances, starting as a Junior, to pass before graduation. In some school districts, such as ours, you can not "cross the stage" without passing this test as this is a requirement to graduation. No pass no dipolma until you do. This test and CCISD (Corpus Christi Independent School District) policy has been in place since President Bush was our governor and helped put the "No Child Left Behind" legislation into act. This year, one of our more "public" citizen's daughter was unable to pass the test after 5 (I think) attempts and the mother requested a temporary restraining order against CCISD so her child could walk across the stage with her classmates citing it was unfair and an embarrassment to her daughter. The restraining order was denied and the graduation did go on without her. There were many posts on our local newpaper's website about this issue, mostly against letting her walk the stage. The mother even posted trying to "pose" as someone other than herself defending her view and scolding posters who appeared to be "attacking" her daughter. I could see both sides of the coin, but leaned closer to her not being able to cross the stage because that would be a discredit to those that did pass the test. My biggest peeve was that this woman thought it would be an embarrassment for her daughter to be absent from the graduation, but here she was airing her daughter's "dirty laundry" to the city and subjecting her to much criticism that she mostly likely wouldn't have encountered if she had not pursued this matter in such a public way with her press conferences. As this is my first discussion here, I'm not sure whether to post a link to our online newspaper with the stories about this issue. But, I am curious as to what people outside of our little burg think...
2 responses
@jonesy123 (3948)
• United States
13 Jun 08
If it would have been such an embarrasment for her daughter, she should have gotten her tutoring early enough to pass the test. It looks like it's more an embarrasment for the mother. I think the daughter is more embarrased now by the public 'airing of the dirty laundry' and the mega attention she got for her inability to pass the test due to her mother's public lamenting about her not 'crossing the stage'. They knew the stakes in advance and didn't take care of her schooling enough for her to pass the test. I guess nobody wants to be stuck with a 'dumb' child, especially not a public figure, lol. Ultimately it does come down to a parental failure.
1 person likes this
• United States
13 Jun 08
One of many "sound bites" she gave to the local media was that the party was already planned and relatives from out of town were coming in just for this event. Didn't seem too concerned with the fact her daughter had attempted to pass this test 5 times and failed 5 times which seemed like the bigger issue than as to who is going to sit next to grandma. Most of the people in our city (well at least on the online newspaper's comments section) found her selfish and vain. Some even went to look up an article in the Fashion section to an article about her where she compared herself to Eva Longoria-Parker (one of our home-grown celebs). This is how she got "busted" trying to post as someone else...she posted as herself trying to defend her interview remarks.
@artemis432 (7474)
• Abernathy, Texas
4 Dec 09
I think each person should be treated equally. If all have to pass the test no one should be able to shirk that requirement. I'm glad the schools have good standard though, we're about to move to Texas and I have a three year old who will be ready to enter the school system in a few years.